D'Antoni: Rockets haven't shown heart lately

At 42-19, Mike D'Antoni's Rockets have been one of the season's most pleasant surprises, but you wouldn't know it listening to the Coach of the Year candidate following Houston's Monday night home loss to Indiana.

"There was like five or six straight plays of being soft," D'Antoni told reporters after the Rockets lost a game in which they jumped out to an 18-2 lead. "Soft getting back on defense, soft on rebounding, getting an outlet pass, just soft.

"We can't think we're going to go against (playoff) teams and think we're going to go a long ways in the playoffs. It doesn't work that way. We've got to show some fight."

Houston remains seated comfortably in the Western Conference's No. 3 seed, four games ahead of fourth-place Utah, but Monday's 117-108 loss to the Pacers drops the Rockets to a pedestrian 11-10 over the last seven weeks. It's that pattern of mediocre play that seems to have D'Antoni concerned with the postseason a month-and-a-half away.

"They don't give championships up there for guys that just show up. You've got to go get it. A champion has a heart - a big heart, big heart. We haven't shown that lately."

D'Antoni's message seemed to resonate with his team, as James Harden echoed his coach's sentiment that the Rockets needed more heart, not size, against the Pacers.